The wonderful ladies at Skepchick have posted their holiday gift-giving guide. It’s a podcast, and has lots of good suggestions for you. Of course, books make fine gifts as well.
About Bad Astronomy
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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Death from the Skies!
Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.
"If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
-- Adam Savage, Mythbusters"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot UprisingSocial/Networking/Cool Stuff
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space- Will Our Universe Collide With a Neighboring One?
- Visual Science: Polishing a Cosmic Spyglass
- Visual Science: NASA Unveils Its New Rocket
- Is Jupiter's Bizarre Moon Our Best Hope for Finding Extraterrestrial Life?
- Reviews: Clashes With Aliens, America vs. Science, and Really Horrible Sci-Fi: The Best in Science Culture
- DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Every time you post a link to Skepchick, I end up spending WAY TOO MUCH time there just looking around. At least they are nice enough to label NSFW stuff. Just means I have to go there when I get home, and my wife is out shopping or something.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Like sonic laser screwdiver set also the lightsaber umbrella, but there is no utility belt there.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Larian LeQuella: “Every time you post a link to Skepchick, I end up spending WAY TOO MUCH time there just looking around. At least they are nice enough to label NSFW stuff. Just means I have to go there when I get home…”
Goofing off at work again, are we?
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
what are you buying gifts for.. new years? Or is it a birthday in the family…
surely you’re not going to jump on the yule-winter solstice-christian holiday…
that would make you one of those… er… hypocrites
If you’re going to pretend to be an atheist, Phil, you must reject ALL the worthless pagan-religious holidays too, not just dissing god on thanksgiving, but going the distance and not celebrating ANY holiday in December—
because according to YOU, with no God, then the whole Yule (pagan god worship), Winter Solstice (pagan astrology), Hanukkah (jewish monotheism) , Christmas (christian monotheist), thing is a waste of time.
I don’t know of any other holiday going on at this time that atheist SHOULD be celebrating or buying gifts for…
I suppose it will be a very festive new years at the plait house…
I can see it now…
Here comes sad old randi, in a coal black satan suit , whoops , santa suit, coming up from a manhole (not down from a chimney because I’m pretty skeptical of that story) to bring the plait household wondrous gifts —
for little plait we have an “accurate” Lyells geologic column poster, for phil we have an “accurate” age of the universe diagram based upon parallax geometry, and for mrs. plait we have a one page book that shows an “accurate” representation of the fossil evidence for evolution.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
Instead of Ho! Ho! Ho!, randi says Go! Go! Go! buy my merchandise, and become another neophyte repeater of lucid stupidity!
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Speaking of trolls coming up from underground….
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I was thinking the same thing Brian.
Ivan3Man… I’m um, taking a cognitive function break… Yeah, that’s it!
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
anon, nice try at trolling, but I’d give it a 4 out of 10. The random capitalization is not bad, upping the “crank” factor, but it’s just not enough to pull off the whole “look at me look at me LOOKATME” vibe a good trolling would produce.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Maybe we ought to ask Santa for better trolls this Christmas. This latest batch is a bit weak.
Anyway anon, I don’t generally wish people a Merry Christmas this time of year (I usually wait until at least the 11th) but for you I’ll make an exception. Merry Christmas from this atheist, and I sincerely hope you learn to enjoy life a bit more instead of worrying about how other people decide to celebrate the holidays.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
A full 4 out of 10? You must be in a charitable mood Dr. Plait!
In case anyone is wondering about the whole celebration season and what atheist’s consider, this may be of use: http://atheism.about.com/od/christmasholidayseason/p/GodlessXmas.htm?nl=1
And please, I have no idea if Dr. Plait is atheist or not. He regularly says he’s a skeptic, but that is NOT the same thing… (probably one reason I subtracted at least a full point from anon’s score. I’m like an East German judge I guess.)
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
NSFW= Not Safe For Wife?
J/P=?
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
anon the troll: Just because a tradition is a “Waste of Time”, doesn’t mean it’s not FUN!
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I don’t feel like signing up for yet another website account so I won’t be logging in over there, but one of those sites puts woo in the product description:
“The Fruit Bat necklace calls to mind a bat’s unique and mysterious qualities. Bats are winged nocturnal mammals that “hear” their surroundings with super-sensitive sonar. How incredible! This necklace represents intuition and calls to mind the pose of the hanged man, from tarot, a free-thinker who’s views are not easily swayed by society.”
Now there’s a gift for the skeptical thinker, a symbol from tarot cards!